Larry Forney 2009

Larry Forney, professor of biology, joined the University in 2000. His internationally-reaching research focuses on microbial communities and ecology, including adaptive evolution in spatially structured environments such as biofilms; the biodiversity and biogeography of prokaryotes; and the ecology of the human microbiome, particularly in the female urogenital tract. One of Forney’s great accomplishments is that his vision reaches beyond his own research focus to include other scientists in cross-disciplinary fields of study, such as mathematics, computer science, geology, environmental engineering and statistics, to create collaborative work. During his tenure at the University of Idaho, Forney has established a network of interdisciplinary collaborations that has built up the University’s infrastructure and provided support to many researchers.